As the government was working on the recent, new budget deal and subsequent boost in government spending, Congress quietly snuck in a provision that forms a committee which would use federal funds to bail out as many as 200 "multiemployer" pension plans -- where employers and labor unions jointly provide retirement benefits to employees.

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But Congress' committee, assuming it works, wouldn't even rescue the red zone plans, much less the remaining 1,200. And it doesn't even begin to address the real problem -- the $7 trillion funding gap faced by the government's own pensions.

Congress is stepping in because the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) -- the pension equivalent to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) -- is completely insolvent.